EARTHQUAKES FOR THE EARS--MUSICAL GROUND RESETTLES INTO MODERNISM BEETHOVEN, STRAVINSKY, DEBUSSY, ANTHEIL TRANSFORM MUSIC The 20th century saw a series of cultural earthquakes that shook the music establishment and scandalized audiences. Now that modernism has receded, we can view them in perspective and see how they entered the mainstream and vitalized our concert experience. Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Debussy's breaking through the German hegemony with Impressionism; granting Jazz concert hall respectability; coupling music with film (from "Bad Boy of Music" George Antheil and Fernand Léger's 1924 Ballet Mécanique); and the advent of Latin American vernacular--all radically transformed our notion of classical music. Amplifying the music, passages from Igor Stravinsky's and Antheil's memoirs will be threaded through the program and read by brilliant comedienne Alison Larkin. As Paris was the nexus of all the art forms and isms of the early part of the 20th century, the first half of the program includes Claude Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano; Olivier Messiaen's "Louange a l'Éernité de Jésu" from his transcendent Quartet for the End of Time; as well as (Paris adopted son) Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in its piano version. Perhaps no one composer shook the musical establishment and revolutionized what followed so much as Beethoven. His magnificent final violin sonata, No. 10 in G Major Opus 26 receives a performance along with the effervescent and irreverent Café Music by Paul Schoenfield. Schoenfield's music attracts listeners with its combination of exuberance and seriousness, originality, lightness and depth, often with sly twists in the spirit of the French musical iconoclasts. This program brings to the fore some of the direct predecessors of John Cage, Philip Glass and John Adams. Performers are pianist Michael Chertock, violinist Yehonatan Berick, cellist Yehuda Hanani, and comedienne Alison Larkin. All in all, a thrilling, kinetic and illuminating evening, infused with a sense of historic immediacy. Tickets: $50 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 (ages 18-30) are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100. Visit our website at www.cewm.org for more information. Patron's Preferred Package $150 includes Preferred Patron seat and Patron-only dinner reception. www.cewm.org or contact Close Encounters With Music at 800.843.0778|cewmusic@aol.com.

EARTHQUAKES FOR THE EARS–MUSICAL GROUND RESETTLES INTO MODERNISM–BEETHOVEN, STRAVINSKY, DEBUSSY, ANTHEIL TRANSFORM MUSIC

The 20th century saw a series of cultural earthquakes that shook the music establishment and scandalized audiences. Now that modernism has receded, we can view them in perspective and see how they entered the mainstream and vitalized our concert experience. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Debussy’s breaking through the German hegemony with Impressionism; granting Jazz concert hall respectability; coupling music with film (from “Bad Boy of Music” George Antheil and Fernand Léger’s 1924 Ballet Mécanique); and the advent of Latin American vernacular–all radically transformed our notion of classical music. Amplifying the music, passages from Igor Stravinsky’s and Antheil’s memoirs will be threaded through the program and read by brilliant comedienne Alison Larkin.

As Paris was the nexus of all the art forms and isms of the early part of the 20th century, the first half of the program includes Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano; Olivier Messiaen’s “Louange a l’Éernité de Jésu” from his transcendent Quartet for the End of Time; as well as (Paris adopted son) Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in its piano version. Perhaps no one composer shook the musical establishment and revolutionized what followed so much as Beethoven. His magnificent final violin sonata, No. 10 in G Major Opus 26 receives a performance along with the effervescent and irreverent Café Music by Paul Schoenfield. Schoenfield’s music attracts listeners with its combination of exuberance and seriousness, originality, lightness and depth, often with sly twists in the spirit of the French musical iconoclasts.

This program brings to the fore some of the direct predecessors of John Cage, Philip Glass and John Adams. Performers are pianist Michael Chertock, violinist Yehonatan Berick, cellist Yehuda Hanani, and comedienne Alison Larkin.

All in all, a thrilling, kinetic and illuminating evening, infused with a sense of historic immediacy.

Tickets: $50 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 (ages 18-30) are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100. Visit our website at http://www.cewm.org for more information.

Patron’s Preferred Package
$150 includes Preferred Patron seat and Patron-only dinner reception.
http://www.cewm.org or contact Close Encounters With Music at 800.843.0778|cewmusic@aol.com.